7 Albums Out Today You Should Listen to Now: Bat for Lashes, Octo Octa, EarthGang, and More

Also stream new releases from Lower Dens, Sandro Perri, the Highwomen, and Kindness

Natasha Khan aka Bat for Lashes, photo by Rachael Pony Cassells

With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from Bat for Lashes, Octo Octa, EarthGang, Lower Dens, Sandro Perri, the Highwomen, and Kindness. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)

Lost Girls is Natasha Khan’s fifth LP as Bat for Lashes. The album was recorded in Los Angeles. In his Pitchfork review of Lost Girls, Ben Hewitt states, “Natasha Khan writes songs that sound not quite of this earth.” Watch Bat for Lashes’ videos for “Kids in the Dark” and “The Hunger.”

House producer Maya Bouldry-Morrison is the force behind Octo Octa. Resonant Body is her latest full-length album, following an EP titled For Lovers that was released in March. Half of proceeds from sales of Resonant Body will benefit the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which advocates for legal and other protections for free gender expression.

Atlanta rap duo EarthGang make their major label full-length debut with Mirrorland. The record features Young Thug, Kehlani, T-Pain, and more. It also includes “Swivel,” which was included on the Dreamville compilation Revenge of The Dreamers III.

For The Competition, the first Lower Dens album in four years, lead singer and songwriter Jana Hunter said they wanted to write songs that had the potential to be “a guaranteed escape to a mental space where beauty, wonder, and love were possible.” Check out Lower Dens’ music videos for “Young Republicans” and “I Drive.”

Nearly seven years after releasing Impossible Spaces in 2011, Sandro Perri issued a four-track album last year that put him on the long list for a Polaris Prize. He’s left a smaller gap between releases with this year’s Soft Landing. Perri wrote and produced his new album, which he’s been crafting for the past decade.

The Highwomen are a new band of seasoned country music professionals: Amanda Shires, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, and Natalie Hemby. Their self-titled debut features a handful of guests, including Miranda Lambert, Tanya Tucker, Sheryl Crow, and Jason Isbell. Carlile has said the project is “about banding together, abandoning as much ego as humanly possible, holding one another up, and amplifying other women every chance we get.”

Something Like a War is the third studio album from Kindness, following 2014’s Otherness. Between albums, the singer and producer has worked with the likes of Blood Orange, Robyn, and Solange. The new record is also heavy on collaboration: Robyn appears on “Cry Everything”; Jazmine Sullivan features on “Hard to Believe”; and Seinabo Sey is on ”Lost Without,” which was co-written with Kelela.